


Summer, Do You Feel Me?

by sunshinexbomb



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Beach shenanigans, M/M, Summer Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 12:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15436989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinexbomb/pseuds/sunshinexbomb
Summary: Talking to Carly is easy, like they’ve known each other for ages. They talk about hockey and their families and living in DC. Carly’s laugh is infectious, it makes TJ’s stomach flip and it helps him forget about the sun beating against his back and the sweat dripping down from his temples.—Or TJ unexpectedly meets Carly during a trip to the beach.





	Summer, Do You Feel Me?

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Finishing Caps Monthly twice? Wow! This was written in a matter of hours completely on my phone so I apologize for. Everything. 
> 
> I used the player prompt of the month (John Carlson), both picture prompts, and also there’s a hint of clothes sharing in here. 
> 
> Thanks Grace and SP for quickly looking over this. All other mistakes are my own. Everything here is fictional and the title is from All Time Low’s “The Beach”.

The summer sun is blistering hot. TJ can feel heat pooling in the small of his back, against his upper lip. His skin is sticky already, t-shirt plastered so tightly against him it’s like it’s a part of him. 

“You had to pick the hottest fucking day of the year to go to the beach, didn’t you Teej?” Tom asks beside him. TJ can’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses. His head is tipped back against his seat. He sounds drowsy. 

The AC in TJ’s car stopped working somewhere over the Bay Bridge. The windows are down, but with the stand-still beach traffic heading into Rehoboth, it’s basically useless. In the back seat, Braden is asleep, mouth open wide. If TJ wasn’t boiling to death he’d tell Tom to take a picture for Snapchat. 

“It’ll be better when we’re by the water, babe,” TJ replies, not knowing if that’s actually true. He can’t imagine there’s anywhere they can go to escape the sun. 

“It better be,” Tom mumbles. 

TJ sighs, foot pressing lightly on the gas as the car inches forward. 

—

Despite the heat, the beach is crowded. The sand burns against the soles of TJ’s feet as they scour for a spot by the water. It’s pointless, and they settle eventually in the first spot they find. Every once in a while, there’s a light breeze as TJ and Tom spear the umbrellas into the ground. TJ relishes the brief bit of relief and the scent of salty sea air when the wind hits his face. 

Braden lays out the beach towels for them, reminds them to put on sunscreen. TJ hates to admit he probably would’ve forgotten and then ended up going home with peeling skin and a burn that wouldn’t ease for ages. 

Under the umbrellas, it’s cool enough, and TJ settles across his towel, eyes closed. He listens to the crashing waves, people’s laughter, music playing from someone’s portable speaker. Despite the heat, TJ’s glad to be here, to be with Tom and Braden on a rare day where none of them have work or summer classes. 

All of it is enough to make TJ feel settled, and soon he dozes off in the shade. 

—

TJ has no idea how long he’s asleep but he’s startled awake by something hitting him hard and square in the chest.

He rubs at his pecs as he sits up, winded, muttering, “What the fuck?” 

“Shit, sorry about that,” someone says, and TJ looks up, the wind knocked out of his lungs again. 

The guy is fucking gorgeous, blond hair and tanned skin and a crooked smile that’s full of apology. He’s  _ golden  _ and all TJ can think about is the Greek god from his mythology class, the one that controlled the sun. 

“Um, that’s okay,” TJ manages to get out. The guy scoops up a soccer ball lying by TJ’s side, which is probably what hit him earlier. “It happens, man.”

“Still, didn’t mean to wake you, seemed like you were having a great nap there,” the guy says, smile turning more teasing, and TJ can’t help but laugh. 

“I was, actually, so maybe you’re not forgiven after all.”

“Well let me make it up to you then,” the guys says, holding out his hand. “Carly.”

“TJ,” TJ replies, shaking his hand. It’s soft and warm in his own. “And how are you gonna make it up, exactly?”

“Well, my friends and I are right down there by the water,” he says, pointing to a group of guys closer to the shore. “Why don’t you join us? I promise the sun isn’t as brutal there.” 

“You have room for three?” TJ asks, looking around him. He didn’t notice before that he’s alone now, Tom and Braden probably off in the water already. 

“We’ll manage,” Carly promises. 

TJ nods. Despite the shade, there’s sweat on his face, above his mouth, and he wipes it away, hoping he doesn’t look a mess when Carly is standing there looking like he should be on an Abercrombie bag or something. “Sick. Let me wait for my buddies to get back and then we’ll head on over.”

Carly’s answering smile puts the summer sun to shame. 

—

It’s not long before Tom and Braden are back, hair slick with salt and ocean foam. Because he’s an asshole, the first thing Tom does upon getting to their spot is shake his head like a dog, spraying TJ with water. 

“Dick,” TJ says, laughing and handing him a towel. 

“You have a good nap?” Braden asks, plopping down on his towel and readjusting it so it’s in the shade. He cracks open the cooler they brought, taking out two bottles of cold water, one for Tom and one for himself. 

“Yeah, for sure,” TJ says. “Don’t get too comfortable,” he adds as Tom starts to splay our beside him, not caring that sand is getting  _ everywhere _ , “I found us a spot closer to the water.”

“How?” Braden asks. “It looks crowded up there.”

“I met a guy. He said we can join him,” TJ says, already getting up and shaking out his towel and gathering his things. 

Tom and Braden exchange a look. 

“Did he say  _ we  _ can join him or that  _ you  _ can join him?” Tom asks. 

TJ rolls his eyes. “ _ We.  _ Now get up, asshole. Get your things.”

Tom and Braden share a few more looks. TJ has no idea what they mean, but the silent conversation ends in a shrug and Braden starting to pack up the towels again. 

TJ tries not to buzz from excitement at the prospect of seeing Carly again. 

—

The closer they get to the water, the more bearable the sand feels against TJ’s feet. It sinks between his toes, small puffs of it flying up with every step he takes. 

TJ spots Carly quickly as they get near the water, and Carly sees him too, waving and jogging up to him with a giant smile. 

“Let me help,” Carly insists, grabbing one of the umbrellas from TJ. TJ hands it over without hesitation. 

Up here by the sea, the heat doesn’t feel too much like it's searing off TJ’s skin and TJ knows that apart from the whole getting to see Carly thing, he’s made the right choice. As they walk, TJ introduces Tom and Braden, his friends laughing loudly as Carly explains how they met. 

“Not the meet-cute I expected,” Tom says and Carly throws his head back in laughter.

“It was very cute,” Carly says with a wink, and TJ hopes the blush in his cheeks can be passed off as heat from the sun. 

Carly’s spot is occupied by three other guys already and there are more introductions as TJ and Tom and Braden puts down their things. Karl, who Carly introduced as his roommate, shakes everyone’s hand with a warm smile. Nicky, who Carly introduces as “that asshole”, just waves from where he’s lying on his towel, immersed in a book. He still finds the effort to flip Carly the bird before turning the page. Last is Alex who’s dozed off, way more gone than TJ had been earlier. His head is in Nicky’s lap, and TJ doesn’t miss the way Nicky almost absentmindedly runs his fingers through Alex’s hair. 

TJ makes sure to lay his towel out next to the empty one, which he suspects is Carly’s. With Carly and Karl’s help, they get the umbrellas back up and everyone settles in comfortably. 

“You guys have beer in there?” Karl asks, motioning to the cooler. 

Braden grins, cracking the lid open and passing out bottles. “Of course, what else?”

The bottle caps are the twist off kind because Braden is a saint who thinks about things like that when he’s packing. TJ clinks his bottle against Carly’s in cheers before taking a long drink. 

When he brings his arm down, it’s pressed right up against Carly’s at his side. Despite the heat, TJ doesn’t mind.

—

TJ finds out that Carly is from New Jersey and that him and his friends all go to College Park and that they all met while trying out for the school’s D3 hockey team. TJ beams at that, explains that he’s from Washington and that he nearly went to UND for hockey before getting accepted in Georgetown.

“And, like, it’s  _ Georgetown,  _ y'know? You don’t just turn that down, even for hockey,” he says.

“Yeah, for sure,” Carly agrees, listening intently as TJ talks about his poli sci program and his hopes for law school. 

Talking to Carly is easy, like they’ve known each other for ages. They talk about hockey and their families and living in DC. Carly’s laugh is infectious, it makes TJ’s stomach flip and it helps him forget about the sun beating against his back and the sweat dripping down from his temples. 

Eventually, when Alex wakes up, most of them go into the water. Braden stays back with Nicky, engaging him in a conversation about his book, and it makes TJ smile that even Nicky, who’s been quiet this whole time, can’t seem to resist Braden’s easy charm. 

They swim into waves and Tom splashes everyone like an asshole and Alex splashes back like an even bigger asshole. TJ gets salt water in his nose, and he laughs harder than he’s ever laughed watching Carly and Alex trying to dunk Tom’s head under the water. Karl rolls his eyes at them all, but easily turns on Carly, tackling him into the surf when Carly splashes him. 

By the time they’re back on shore, TJ’s fingers and toes are pruney and his nose and eyes and the back of his throat burn with salt. Carly’s arm is around his shoulders as they walk, and TJ tries not to stare at the droplets of water that stream down Carly’s chest and stomach. 

TJ’s stomach is growling like mad when he collapses on his towel. Braden must hear it because he laughs, passing him a bag of chips that TJ starts digging into ravenously. 

“God, these are the best thing I’ve ever had,” TJ moans, clutching the bag closer to his chest when Tom tries to take some. “No, get your own, asshole.”

Tom pouts, frown deepening when Carly dips his fingers into the bag and pulls out a few chips without complaint from TJ. He looks ready to protest, but Braden comes to the rescue, throwing another bag in Tom’s face that he accepts with a smile and shares with Karl because apparently he’s, “not a dick unlike  _ some  _ people.”

“Hey, I’m sharing,” TJ says, which is technically true. It’s just that he’s only sharing with Carly. 

Beside them, Alex is getting in Nicky’s face, spraying him with water just as Tom had done to TJ and Braden earlier. Nicky drops his book in the sand, and TJ’s half expecting him to get mad, but instead he’s laughing, grabbing Alex’s wrists, pushing him away with a fond roll of his eyes. Alex plants a kiss on Nicky’s nose, plopping down next to him. He picks up Nicky’s book, brushing off the sand before handing it back. Nicky reads and Alex sits with his head on Nicky’s shoulder and the whole thing is - sweet. 

“They’re like that all the time,” Carly says, when he notices where TJ’s looking. “I mean, when they’re not at each other’s throats or fucking like dogs.”

TJ chokes on his chips and Carly laughs thumps him on the back, laughing. 

“Jesus, great mental image there, Carly.”

Carly shrugs, taking more of TJ’s chips. “At least you’ve never actually had to see it. Yet. The day is still young.”

There’s a mischievous twinkle in Carly’s usually sleepy looking eyes that TJ loves. His mouth is curved in a smirk and TJ wants to trace it with his fingertips, wants to envelope it with his own mouth. 

Instead, he pushes back the urge, shoves a handful of chips into his mouth, and listens as Carly and Karl regale tales of the unexpected places they’ve run into Nicky and Alex fucking. 

—

“We should go back to the beach house,” Alex says when the sun is much lower in the sky and the beach has cleared out considerably. 

TJ’s nose is started to peel despite Braden’s incessant reminders to reapply sunscreen. His shoulders are also reddening, but Carly is laying on his hip, looking at his phone, so TJ doesn’t have many complaints yet. 

“You guys should join us,” Carly says, looking up at TJ. From this angle his forehead looks massive, his face weird and scrunched up. It should make TJ laugh, but all TJ feels is endearment. “We can set up a bonfire. Get some more beer. Alex is a beast on the grill.”

“Willy's not invited, though,” Alex says with a gap toothed smile and Tom throws an empty water bottle at him. 

“Fuck you, Ovi.” 

Karl texts Braden the address to the beach house they’re renting. Alex jokes that Tom’s only allowed to come if he buys the beer and Tom kicks sand at him but still agrees to make the beer run. TJ helps Braden gather their things, and TJ feels a bit of satisfaction that the back of Braden’s neck is an angry red. 

“You missed a spot, Holts,” Tom says, noticing the same thing, and slaps Braden’s neck just under the burn because he’s a dick.

Braden touches his neck and winces. “Fuck.”

“We have aloe back at the house,” Carly says, sympathetically. “I’ll help you get some on your shoulders too, Teej,” he adds and TJ blushes. 

“Thanks, babe,” he manages to stutter out, and it’s Carly’s face that turns red this time. 

“Thanks, babe,” Tom mimics in a high-pitched voice, and TJ does not feel bad at all when he knocks all of Tom’s things out of his hands. 

—

The sun is setting by the time they get to the beach house. The house is not actually on the water, but there’s a view of the ocean from the top floor and a fire pit in the backyard that Carly and Karl stoke to life as Alex fires up the grill. 

They eat around the fire pit, plates in their laps, laughing and shooting the shit. TJ somehow ends up between Tom and Alex, the two of them chirping each other over him. Across from him, Carly is having a soft conversation with Nicky that seems to involve Nicky smirking a lot and Carly blushing intermittently. TJ can’t help but to stare at the way the light from the fire pit creates shadows on Carly’s face, highlighting the shape of his nose, the sharpness of his jaw. 

When they’re all full on burgers and beer and TJ’s stomach is hurting from laughing at some story Alex is telling, Braden ventures out to the car, and TJ is completely unsurprised that he comes back with his guitar. 

“Play ‘Wonderwall’,” Tom requests, because of course he does, and TJ tries to hold back a laugh. 

Across the fire pit, Carly catches TJ’s eye and nods toward the back door of the house. TJ gets the hint, grabbing the empty bottles around him and bringing them inside as he joins Carly. 

Carly’s placing his own bottles in the sink with a soft smile. Outside Alex and Karl and Tom are drunkenly belting the words to “Wonderwall” and Nicky is filming the whole thing. 

“So, did I make it up to you?” Carly asks, drawing TJ’s attention away from where he’s watching the others through the sliding glass door. 

“The day’s been pretty sick,” TJ agrees, coming to stand beside Carly. Their arms brush as TJ places his bottles next to Carly’s, and the spots where they touch burn hotter than the sun at high noon. 

Carly turns to face him, hip leaning against the kitchen counter. He bites on the corner of his lip and TJ traces the movement, licking at his own.

“But did I make things up to you?” Carly asks. 

“I think there’s something you can do to make it just a bit better,” TJ says, reaching out. He touches the nape of Carly’s neck where his hair curls softly. 

Carly is the one to kiss him. He rests a hand, big and warm, on TJ’s hip as he closes the distance between them. Carly tastes like salt water and sunscreen and beer. TJ kisses him back hungrily, licking the taste of summer out of his mouth, reveling in the firm press of Carly’s lips, the slight bite of his teeth. 

It’s not graceful by any means. Their noses bump when they try to angle their heads in the same direction, and TJ grips a little too hard at Carly’s neck where there’s a light burn that TJ hadn’t noticed before. It’s  _ good _ , though. TJ feels the heat in his belly, the electricity in his veins, all from finally getting to touch Carly the way he’s wanted to all day.

Both of them are breathing hard when they part, and Carly whispers a small, “Wow,” that makes TJ laugh. 

“That’s how I feel too,” he admits and Carly smiles, head falling on TJ’s shoulder. TJ can feel Carly’s smile when Carly turns his head into TJ’s neck, placing a soft kiss there. 

“Should we get back out there?” Carly asks. Outside, the guys have moved onto fumbling through the words to “Semi-Charmed Life”. 

“I don’t want to,” TJ says, “but probably.”

Carly laughs, kissing him again, softer, sweeter.

They kiss for a little bit longer, until TJ’s mouth is red and numb, heading back out once the song’s changed to something new. It’s getting chilly out and Carly grabs two sweatshirts from the living room, handing one to TJ which he pulls on gratefully. The sweatshirt has a terrapin on the front and it smells like Carly. 

Outside, they sit next to each other, hands clasped. TJ leans his head on Carly’s shoulder and he smiles, listening to the crackle of the fire pit and his friends singing around him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on Twitter or Tumblr - I’m tjoshov on both ♥


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